Editor’s take: Though the troll enraged fans, this incident made for an epic speedrunning moment. The Zod rune represents countless hours of grinding, and Kano casually vendored it without a thought. Diablo 2 diehards won’t soon forget this devilish display of disrespect for the game’s rarest loot.
An accomplished Diablo 2 Resurrected player has pulled off the loot equivalent of winning the lottery, nabbing the rarest drop the classic action RPG has to offer. But in a twist that enraged fans, he immediately sold the priceless rune for a ‘measly’ 35,000 gold.
Speedrunner ‘Kano’ was 8 hours into an assassin “1 to ubers” world record attempt last week when a defeated enemy spat out a Zod rune – the absolute rarest of Diablo 2’s droppable runes. Viewers instantly lost their minds.
“That’s easily the rarest thing ever dropped in a speedrun,” exclaimed one incredulous viewer.
“A Zod Rune! That’s my highest speedrun rune,” Kano exclaimed, adding “That’s the first-ever Zod I found, by the way.”
But the cosmic rarity wouldn’t last long. In a troll that left fans reeling, Kano bee-lined to the nearest vendor and sold the Zod for 35,000 gold. Cue the meltdown.
“OMFG HE VENDORED IT,” one horrified viewer yelled out. “Over here playing checkers while Kano’s playing 3D chess,” laughed another at the stunt. You can catch the legendary moment around 8:15:30 in Kano’s full stream.
Considering how coveted the item is, you can imagine the chat’s reaction to watching one of the rarest items in Diablo history sold off like a basic healing potion.
“It’s 35K! It’s good money,” Kano joked, fanning the flames.
But just how rare are Zod runes? Many Diablo 2 devotees claim they’ve never seen one drop in decades of play. “I told my wife… I been playing D2 for the majority of 20 years and I just found, for the first time, one of the rarest items in the game,” says a comment on an unrelated Reddit thread on r/Diablo. “She tried to sound excited, but she just doesn’t know the pain and grind and hours dumped into this. I forgive her.”
According to Diablo data site d2runewizard, a Zod has just a 1:2,987,183 chance to drop from Hell Ball’s quest drop.
Kano kept his cool after the iconic jebait, continuing the speedrun.
So, what can you actually do with this legendary rune? The Zod can only be used in one runeword – Breath of the Dying. When socketed into any armor or weapon, the rune makes the item indestructible. Some dedicated players cube two Cham runes and a perfect emerald together to try and snag this coveted rune. To equip gear with a Zod rune, you need to be at least level 69, otherwise it raises the item’s required level to 69.
Of course, Kano wasn’t interested in any of its perks. The fans may forgive him, but they’ll certainly never forget.
